The Atlantic has a photo feature that takes a look back 50 years to the events that shaped the world in 1961. It’s one of the types of photo stories that you see a lot at the end of the year, but done in a much more interesting way than normal. Amazing to see the turmoil and change that shaped the lives of millions of people in the coming decades — from Cuba to the quest for equality in America. Also of particular interest to me is the space race and all that surrounded this early time of exploration of the final frontier. See all of the images here.

Wow, I was in boarding school during the time most of these were taken, and had an English Master that was actually a Freedom Rider during the summer. But the thing I remember most frighteningly was perpetual fear that one of those AM radio interrupting News Bulletins might be that we are under attack by the Russians and the end of the nuclear world as we knew it was at hand.

I’m not being dramatic; it is how 13-year old perceived the state of the world, and how near we were to trigger-time and fallout shelters.

And considering that, I got the biggest “relief” kick out of the publicity agent-inspired photo of Satchmo playing for the sphinx; it even beat out the pile of kids on a dorm bed. (So much for “4 (feet) on the floor” in those days of pareital hours.)